"I'll be honest about it. It is not atheists who get stuck in my craw, but agnostics. Doubt is useful for a while. We must all pass through the garden of Gethsemane, If Christ played with doubt, so must we. If Christ spent an anguished night in prayer, if He burst out from the Cross, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me,' then surely we are permitted doubt. But we must move on. To choose doubt as a philosophy of lfe is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation."
(Life of Pi, by Yann Martel, 2001)
His name is Piscene Molitor Patel, or Pi for short, and he survived for over 200 days aboard a lifeboat in the Pacific Ocean with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. Interested? You should read the story.
Born in Pondicherry, India, Pi is the teenage son of a zookeeper and his wife, a thoroughly irreligious couple, that is, they have no use for religion as they view themselves as modern Indians. Pi is, like many Indians, a Hindu. . . and also a Muslim, and also a Christian. Somehow this is believable, as the author allows us to suspend our disbelief for a time, the fact that these religions are not co-extensive but have irreconcilable differences. Rather, in the telling of his early life in India, Pi focuses on the truth of each religion, never, however, with a goal of melding them all together into one, and never in a preachy way.
He says "I was fourteen years old --- and a well-content Hindu --- when I met Jesus Christ on a holiday." Listen to how he describes his coming to faith: "I couldn't get Him out of my head. Still can't. I spent three solid days thinking about Him. The more He bothered me, the less I could forget him. And the more I learned about Him, the less I wanted to leave Him." Yet, to the consternation of many, he believed them all, accepted them all, was thoroughly religious in every way.
The story is told in the first person. Our scribe is the writer, one who interviews Pi as a middle aged man living in Toronto. It's playfully told, with a fair degree of humor, and yet the account of surviving at sea can be harrowing to read. It is as suspenseful a tale as any, and yet it asks the serious question: will you disbelieve a story just because it is outside the realm of your experience? Really, it's a question for nonbelievers: Will you disbelieve the Gospel, the Story, just because it is outside the realm of our experience, just because it sounds incredible?
More than that, his discussion of animals provides a metaphor for what true freedom is. He points out that animals in zoos, in enclosures, are truly free. Bounded in a defined area, given what they need to survive, they can clearly be who they are. Outside, the constant quest for food and defense of territory is all-consuming. So too as humans we have true freedom when we understand who we are in Christ and submit to his keeping.
It was said that this is a story that will make you believe in God. Maybe. It certainly helped me believe more in God and realize the limits of reason and the power of the one Story. I recommend it.
[Addendum: In his comment on this post, my friend Andy cautions against the mentality of one who flirts with multiple religions. He says "I can't believe that an encounter with the one Christ would not either totally offend a heart or cause a heart to deny all others." He's right, of course, and that's the reason that belief that these religions are irreconcilable can be suspended only for a time. In the end, to continue to do so, you can only skate the surface of these irreconcilable systems of belief. In addition, if the message is that all religions lead to God, then that's an old and dangerous lie. The book is helpful in helping one see some truth in Islam and Hinduism, and yet it's an arena to be entered cautiously. The book is better as a great story of human survival, much like Hemingway's Old Man and the Sea. Don't read it for theology but for story. Thanks to Andy for the word of caution.]
